


getting through the night

by silentassassin21



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Friendships are gr8, Major Character Death is all canonical, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, more just mentioned or assumed, not really focused on, spoilers for the finale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-02-23 01:39:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13179651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentassassin21/pseuds/silentassassin21
Summary: different moments of friendship that have happened in space





	1. fisher + lambert

**Author's Note:**

> I! HAD! FEELINGS! so i wrote shit. the title comes from "flashlight" by jessie j because i love it (i would recommend listening to the cover by billbilly01 bc it's gr8)

Usually when people needed somewhere to think they would go somewhere quiet, but Lambert wasn't like most people. Loud environments were what helped him to clear his head - especially environments that were loud but had no voices. 

That's why he snuck into rooms where the engines could be heard the loudest whenever he needed space. The walls were always slightly warm and the sounds of the engines were both soothing and helped to remind Lambert that no, they would not suddenly crash into the star. That was usually what half his visits were about. The other half were almost exclusively him needing time to breathe and calm down after he and Lovelace had butted heads over something.

Empty rooms were good for that, which is why when he went into one of his regular hiding spots after an argument and found Fisher there he stopped short, grabbing onto the wall to stop himself.

Fisher hadn't seem to noticed he was there yet. The other man had a toolbox beside him and was doing something on the far wall, a pair of headphones on and what looked like a Walkman attached to his side. Even as he was pissed off Lambert still rolled his eyes at the man's back because who the hell had a Walkman in the 21st century? 

When Fisher started humming Lambert remembered where he was and what he was doing, and decided to leave. He couldn't sulk in a room someone was in already, especially not with the man who was far too bright and friendly and was sure to ask a lot of questions. But as Lambert was pushing off the wall and started to exit Fisher turned, probably going to another section of the wall, and saw him.

He grinned and Lambert internally groaned. "Hi, Lambert," he said cheerily, pulling the headphones off and settling them around his neck. "What brings you here?"

Lambert floundered for a moment. "I just... wanted somewhere to think," he decided that the truth was the best route to go given that he wasn't very good at lying convincingly. "But I'll go."

"You don't have to," Fisher said, and he sounded sincere. "I promise I won't be a bother, I'll just be here working silently."

Lambert was more worried about  _him_ being a bother to  _Fisher_ but decided to not voice that, instead saying, "No, it's fine."

"Stay," Fisher said. "No use trying to find another peaceful room when there's one already right here." 

There wasn't really a good argument against that, at least not one Lambert could think of as he was kind of put on the spot. "Okay," he conceded, moving back into the room. Fisher grinned brightly and Lambert gave a small smile in return. "Thanks," he said as he moved to sit by a wall on the opposite side of the room to the engineer.

Whenever anyone described Lambert they either said he was cold, had a stick up his ass or both. Lambert couldn't find it in himself to disagree. That meant that making friends - and, more importantly,  _maintaining_ friends - had always been one of the biggest challenges in his life. 

That's why when Fisher said, "That's what friends are for," Lambert stopped dead. He turned to the other man, who was returning to his work.

"What?" he said, his voice sounding slightly choked.

Fisher furrowed his brows. "I said, that's what friends are for," he said, sounding confused.

"W-we're friends?" Lambert asked. 

"Course we are."

Fisher said it in a way like it should be obvious. But Lambert knew that the rest of the crew saw him as, at best, a joke or a wet blanket. He couldn't imagine any of them, not even Rhea, saying that they were friends.

"Why?" Fisher looked surprised by the question.

"What d'you mean 'why'?"

"Why are you friends with me?"

The look that crossed Fisher's face was one of pity and Lambert hated it. The pity became a sad smile, which Lambert hated slightly less. "'Cause you're nice, at least when people are nice to you. And you always want to help, even when people aren't nice to you. And... I dunno," Fisher said, shrugging his shoulders. "I just like being friends with you, is that such a bad thing?"

Fisher talked about it as if being friends wasn't a new development. And maybe it wasn't. Lambert thought back and, yes, he had a lot of memories including the two of them that could definitely qualify as friendship. Fisher never taking Lovelace's side as a default and instead taking the side he thought was right, which was sometimes Lambert's; both of them would often volunteer to help the other when they needed a spare pair of hands; there had been at least one occasion where Fisher had gone to Lambert first to talk about missing home and his family and his boyfriend and his dog.

Lambert smiled and settled back against the wall. "No, it's not."


	2. minkowski + eiffel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in all of hera's dialogue there are random italics that are meant to represent her glitching, i hope it makes sense and doesn't annoy you too much

Nine times out of ten, if Eiffel was in the same room as Minkowski she wanted to throttle him. Whether it was him mispronouncing her name, not following orders, talking back or making an insensitive comment, she was proud to say that she had restrained herself each and every time.

But then there were those times. Those one in ten times when Eiffel would say something (or not say something) and Minkowski would just get the overwhelming urge to pull the younger man into a tight hug. She never did because it was incredibly unprofessional and Eiffel would likely make a joke that would probably be at her expense and then she would go back to wanting to throttle him.

Except for that one time.

It was soon after Hera had come back online and the station was kind of a mess. One night (according to Minkowski's watch) Hera accidentally turned off the lights on the whole station when she was trying to change the temperature and she hadn't been able to get it back for hours.

In those hours, with nothing else to do, Minkowski and Eiffel had played cards. Their only light was small torches attached to their suits which made seeing the cards difficult and between them they only knew three different games. It was after their fifteenth round of blackjack that Eiffel finally snapped.

"I can't handle this anymore!" he said, throwing down his cards and putting his face in his hands. "There has to be something more interesting we can do."

Minkowski didn't have an answer so she didn't bother trying to supply one, instead she just let silence envelop them. A small part of her almost wished that Hilbert were there because he at least would make things interesting.

"Hera, do you have anything,  _anything_ , we can do?" Eiffel asked, his voice bordering on begging. 

"Hmm," the AI pondered, seeming to be genuinely thinking hard. "I kn _ow_ of some human _game_ s but they d _o_ n't really ma _ke s_ ense _to me_."

Eiffel perked up. "Games? What games?"

"Uhh, tru _th_ or dare, _never ha_ ve I eve _r_ -"

"Anything outside of middle school sleepovers," Eiffel interrupted, not noticing the dirty look Minkowski shot him.

Hera made a sound that made Minkowski imagine that if she were human she would be crossing her arms and giving Eiffel the stink eye. "I'm _so_ rr _y_ , Officer Eif _fel_ , are my suggestion _s not_ up to your st _and_ ard _s_? Are there an _y_ games _you would_ like t _o sug_ gest?"

That made Eiffel shut up and Minkowski grin.

"How do _you_ want to play n _ever_ have I _e_ ver?" Hera asked, deciding the game they were playing without consult either human. "I'm awa _re it_ 's tradition _ally a dri_ nking game _bu_ t -" Hera cut herself off.

"We don't have any alcohol," Minkowski said, not noticing the uncomfortable look on Eiffel's face. 

Eiffel cleared his throat. "We could do the finger version. Where you put out five fingers and every time you've done something you put one down. Whoever has the most fingers at the end wins."

"And _me_?" Hera asked.

"We're just gonna have to trust you, Hera," Eiffel said with a grin. He put out five fingers in front of him and Minkowski did the same. "I'll start. Never have I ever dropped my iPhone?"

Minkowski gaped at him as she lowered a finger. "How? You're the clumsiest person I've ever met."

"I've never had an iPhone," Eiffel said with a wink. Minkowski replied with a glare.

"Fine," she said, staring at Eiffel so he shrunk back slightly. "Never have I ever nearly blown up my quarters because I was trying to secretly smoke."

Eiffel muttered something probably not suitable for children (or anyone for that matter) as he lowered a finger. Hera was giggling at both the humans annoyance.

"Nev _er ha_ ve I ever... kisse _d_ some _one_." Both of them groaned in annoyance.

They had multiple rounds of the game as they all just said things that they knew the other people had done. As it was getting later and they were getting more tired, their answers became less pointed and more in line with strange confessions.

Hera's was the one that ended the game. "Never ha _ve I eve_ r s _eri_ ou _sly_ physically _harmed someone_." The AI let in a sharp intake immediately after her words, obviously regretting them as both Eiffel and Minkowski lowered their final fingers. "I' _m sorry, I_ wa _sn't_ -"

"It's fine, Hera," Eiffel said in a low, sad voice. 

"What happened?" Minkowski asked gently, making sure that the question didn't seem like a demand or that he would feel pressured into telling her.

Eiffel cleared his throat. "Uh, it was an accident, a few years ago," he said. He didn't elaborate further and Minkowski didn't press. "What about you?"

"Other than accidentally knocking into people on the street and things like that, uh," Minkowski started, having to pause to collect her thoughts and make sure no tears would come. She didn't know why she was telling him this but she couldn't stop the words coming out. "In high school. I was in the debating club and the other team were, uh, making comments on the way I pronounced some words. So, afterwards, when we were waiting to be picked up and they kept making fun of my accent, I punched one of them. In the face. Accidentally broke her nose."

Minkowski coughed awkwardly, blinking tears away. Suddenly she had an armful of Eiffel. She hadn't seen him move. His arms were wrapped tightly around her shoulders as his long hair tickled her face.

"That sucks," he said.

"Yeah. It does."


	3. lovelace + eiffel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have a set date for when this is set but probably some time early season three??? Definitely before they find out about Eiffel's criminal history

The main thing that made the Urania so unnerving to be on was the silence of it. Technology had advanced a lot in Lovelace's absence and it meant that they had figured out how to run systems more effectively and with less noise.

It made her especially wary of noises when there shouldn't be, which is why Eiffel ended up with her hands around his throat when he had come into the kitchen early one morning and accidentally banged into a wall. "Sorry, Captain," he wheezed out. She released her grip immediately and moved back, giving him space to catch his breath again. Eiffel rubbed his throat gently and leaned back against the wall, letting his head thunk against it. "Didn't mean to startle you."

"That's okay, Eiffel," she said, her voice as close to gentle as it could be.

She moved back to where she had been drinking her coffee - real, honest-to-god coffee that wasn't made of seaweed - and took a sip. She was perched carefully on a counter, gripping the edge with one hand so she wouldn't float away and holding her mug with the other. Eiffel pushed off the wall in her direction but then veered away to get a mug out the cupboard, pouring himself a cup of coffee as well.

Lovelace thought she could faintly hear what suspiciously sounded like Hera laughing as Eiffel attempted to steady himself against the counter the way that she had, and judging by the look of fond annoyance on Eiffel's face he had heard it too.

"So, what brings you here?" Eiffel asked once he had finally steadied himself. 

Well that was a loaded question. She could have given any number of replies (only some of them flat-out lies) but she settled on the truth.

"I keep thinking about when -  _if_ \- we get back to Earth," she said, ignoring the hurt look on Eiffel's face when she said "if". "What will Goddard want with us? What do our families, our friends, think? How are we going to function like normal human beings?"

"Just light stuff, then," Eiffel joked weakly, but Lovelace could tell his heart wasn't in it. 

He cleared his throat. "I get it." His voice was surprisingly soft and kind in a way she hadn't heard directed at herself, only in rare moments with Hera when he didn't know she was there. "I think about that too. Like, how are... how are we going to just move on from this? We've nearly died so many times, and some of that has been straight-up attempted murder."

"I don't think you can move past it," Lovelace said so quietly she wasn't sure if Eiffel would hear her. "You just learn to live with it, I guess."

"How?"

She had no freaking clue. She would bet good money that no one, not even Minkowski, would have a good answer to that. 

"I don't know," she ended up saying. Then she surprised herself and Eiffel by gently putting a hand on his shoulder. "But we'll help each other."

Eiffel snorted, flashing Lovelace a smile. "What, are we all going to move in together and form a little 'we went to space and survived it but came back messed up' support group?"

That made Lovelace laugh as well. "Please, like our ragtag group could ever live in a house together," she said, taking her hand off Eiffel's shoulder but staying close. "We'd kill each other within a week."

"Ah, but what a fun week it would be."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was really shitty but I'm exhausted and wanted to put up a new chapter. I hope you liked it :)


	4. maxwell + jacobi

The Colonel being an asshole wasn't a new development by any means; hell, Maxwell had known he was an asshole the first day she met him. But sometimes he still managed to surprise her with just how much of an asshole he could be.

Maxwell had on her suit, track pants and a skivvy on underneath, two hoodies on over the top, and her thickest socks, and she was still freezing cold. All because the lovely Colonel had decided that drastically lowering the temperature would make the Hephaestus crew more uncomfortable. Or, that was what Maxwell assumed; it wasn't as if he had decided to inform her of his decision to drop the temperature.

She could practically feel the bags under her eyes as she tried to get comfortable in her bed, curling up as much as possible in a meagre attempt to warm herself up. But it was no use. She was so cold she couldn't even get to sleep. The violent chattering of her teeth wasn't helping.

With a loud groan, Maxwell opened her eyes and looked at the boring metal ceiling of her room. She used to be able to fall asleep in a threadbare pair of pyjamas in temperatures that were in the minuses, but after spending a while on the Urania she had grown far too used to the perfect temperature of the space station.

She twisted her body and saw the blinking 3:53 AM on the wall, letting out another loud, overdramatic groan.

Giving up on sleep, she got out of bed and went to the door. The hallway was, strangely, almost silent. Not quite, with the faint sound of the engines and Hera doing various things to the station, but it was the most quiet it had been since they had rescued the Hephaestus crew.

Maxwell slowly floated down different halls until she reached the quarters that she knew were Jacobi's, partially because she had helped him pick them and partially because he had stuck an obnoxious poster for some screamo band on the door. 

She didn't bother knocking, just opened the door and floated in, ignoring the sound of protest from the person in the bed.

"What if I was jacking off?" Jacobi squawked at her.

She gave him a disbelieving look as she closed the door, pushing off of it so she was beside the bed. "As if I care whether you're getting off or not," she said, using the wall as leverage to lower herself so she was sitting on the bed.

Damn, it was hard to get into bed in zero gravity. That was one thing she genuinely missed about Earth and knew she would never take for granted again. Thankfully, Jacobi remembered that he loved his best friend and helped her by pulling the covers back and tugging on her wrist.

It took a while, but finally she was settled against his abnormally warm side. The blanket was tugged up to their chins and Jacobi pulled his arms around Maxwell, pressing her even closer to him. 

They didn't say anything else, but Maxwell liked it. She liked the comfortable feeling of just being with someone, no talking, nothing sexual, just existing. Jacobi fell asleep almost instantly, his breathing slightly uneven and his body twitching constantly.

Maxwell rested a hand on his left arm, careful to avoid the cold metal prosthetic that was his right, and tucked her head under his chin. Her body was almost back to a regular temperature by the time she fell asleep, listening to her best friend's slightly irregular heartbeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in forever. For some reason this chapter was super hard. Hope you enjoyed it :)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm only planning on doing five chapters with the friendships I have in the tags, but if anyone has any other friendships they want me to add just comment below (pls not kepler & jacobi, lovelace & minkowksi or eiffel & hera bc i ship those too much to keep it platonic)


End file.
